The "Homeplace" was given to his sons Ephraim and Atherton. Ephraim
had a good house of his own, so he took his share of the property in
land, and Atherton went to live in the old homestead. His quarters had
been poor enough; he had not been so successful as his brothers, and
had been unable to live as well. It had been a great cross to his
wife, Dorcas, who was very high-spirited. She had compared, bitterly,
the poverty of her household arrangements, with the abundant comfort
of her sisters-in-law.
Now, she seized eagerly at the opportunity of improving her style of
living. The old Wales house was quite a pretentious edifice for those
times. All the drawback to her delight was, that Grandma should
have the southwest fire-room. She wanted to set up her high-posted
bedstead, with its enormous feather-bed in that, and have it for her
fore-room. Properly, it was the fore-room, being right across the
entry from the family sitting-room. There was a tall chest of drawers
that would fit in so nicely between the windows, too. Take it
altogether, she was chagrined at having to give up the southwest room;
but there was no help for it--there it was in Deacon Wales's will.
Mrs. Dorcas was the youngest of all the sons' wives, as her husband
was the latest born. She was quite a girl to some of them. Grandma
had never more than half approved of her.
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